


Ethel’s New Home

by TijuanaTango



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Children’s Book
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 11:59:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13213290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TijuanaTango/pseuds/TijuanaTango
Summary: A little girl gets lost in the woods, only to come across a dilapidated but strikingly beautiful blue box.





	Ethel’s New Home

There was never a day in young Ethel’s life when she didn’t wish for a superhero to come and rescue her. Her existence was stifled, and the thought of a being greater than herself seeing something special in her struck her like the crack of a baseball against a bat. Ethel often found herself walking along the crowded Seattle streets and suddenly hitting a wall of loneliness, her every step becoming more and more laborious, mind racing with attempted psychoanalyses and failed attempts at telepathy. She felt truly alone, and she truly was.

There was a day some time ago, when little Ethel ran away. In her child’s mind running away was her last option and whether the outcome be her friends and family finally missing her, or that she created a new life for herself she found herself becoming wholly excited with the prospects.

Ethel would never be seen nor heard from again, and none could decide whether it was the wanderlust that drove her to run away, or whether her broken heart had simply decided that it had enough. Yes, young Ethel would finally make it in to something beautiful, she would finally be rescued, all at the hands of a mad man in a blue box.

———————————————

Ethel walked through the woods on her way home from school. Being a girl of no more than eight years old she looked a sorry sight in the darkened wood, as though at any moment it would swallow her up, pink dress, braided hair, and all. Her patent leather shoes slid amongst the fallen leaves and dense plant life around her feet, and as the rain began she found herself running, and slipping haphazardly toward the light of her bedroom window in the distance. She ran deeper into the wood, the rain quickly collecting in the pitted forest floor, sending her falling to the ground a number of times.

It was somewhere between sliding down a small embankment and climbing between brambles where she lost sight of her bedroom light, and began to realize how little she actually knew about the woods surrounding her home. A sudden realization that she was completely alone was sure to come, though it wouldn’t strike her as it may some. Ethel felt alone and lost in a forest on her busiest day, so being alone in the woods around her home was a raindrop in the ocean.

She sat down on a water soaked log for a moment and closed her eyes, thunder taunting her from it’s high home, and lightning offering a brief glimpse of the forest around her. She began to get scared, and clutched her books close to her chest, closing her eyes and hunching over for the rain to beat at her back through her cotton dress. Ethel’s mind travelled, as it often did in times of unrest, to a beautiful palace surrounded by flowers, the sun was shining, and somewhere in the distance somebody called for her, a low sound that she knew was urgent, but didn’t bother to listen to. She walked toward her mind palace, picking daisies and singing lullabies to the clouds, and for just a moment she felt her tightened stomach resting.

A loud crack snapped her back to the present moment, and before she could tell what was going on she was on her feet and running full speed ahead. The lightning began to sound an awful lot like a whip, something that the beautiful, doe-eyed Ethel wished so much to forget. She ran farther and farther into the wood, not even stopping when her shoe fell off or when her dress tore. Ethel ran until she couldn’t tell if it was raining anymore. She ran until her face was wet with tears, and her legs couldn’t move anymore if they wanted to. She slumped against a tree and dropped her books on the muddy ground. Another crack of the whip and she pulled her knees to her chest, clenched her eyes shut and wished to the gods that somebody would come and rescue her.

Ethel fell back into her mind palace like Alice through the looking glass. The voice calling her name was a bit closer now, and she imagined to whom it might belong. She imagined herself skipping toward it, a smile on her impish face, and just as she topped the flowered hill and caught a glimpse of the owner of the voice, she was brought back to the forest again. She laid against the base of the tree, shivering like mad, mud covering her whole left side. Ethel wiped her eyes with wet hands and looked as far as she could into the distance, there was nothing but trees in every direction, no light other than what little bit the moon cast through the clouds.

Ethel hoisted her frozen limbs into a standing position and rubbed her skin for warmth. She grabbed her books and continued into the woods, afraid that if she stopped again she wouldn’t get back up. Thunder and lightning cracked in the sky like gunfire at the beginning of a race and she found herself running once again. She didn’t stop, not even when the birds began chirping in the morning, not even when everything turned a glowing blue around her as the sun peeked over the hills. She ran further and further, imagining what she might find when she reached the end of the woods. The sun began to brighten the trees around her, and just as the distance became visible she saw it; Her new home.

Ethel sprinted toward the beaten blue box, stopping once she was within a few feet of it. She had never seen anything more beautiful, and had never wanted to look away from something more in her life. The box looked lonely, and it reminded her of herself. It was covered in vines and appeared as though it had lived through some kind of war, but beneath the dust and the broken glass and plant life was the bluest blue that Ethel had ever seen. The paint was chipped and on the edges of the box it had begun to be eaten by termites, but Ethel couldn’t take her eyes off of it. It was like looking into the deepest ocean, or into the deepest bits of space, she could see the entire universe in a single color, and as her eyes moved up the tall box she read aloud, “Police Public Call Box.” The box seemed to make a creaking noise, as though it hadn’t heard it’s name in a long time, or as if in protest of that name all together. Her eyes met the slightly ajar door of the box, and before she could fully process what was going on, her hand reached out and pushed on it.

The box creaked loudly, sending birds flying away, screaming with discontent. She poked her small head inside and stepped one bare foot in, followed by one covered one, until she was all the way inside. It was completely dark, and seemed very confined, but she found herself letting out in a small whisper, “hello?” and secretly hoped that her lovely box might answer her. A groaning and whirring noise fluttered around her and suddenly a small speck of light hit her cheek, then more and more until everything was completely lit up. Ethel stood still, nearly expecting what she saw, but too afraid to admit that it was real. Her lovely blue box was deceiving. The box lied, or rather failed to admit the entire truth. The box was all at once small and gigantic, full of light and laced with an undeniable darkness. It was happy and sad at the same time, and Ethel could tell that it was just as lonely on the inside as it was on the outside. She turned around and closed the door behind her before walking in to the large circular platform that housed a thousand buttons.

Ethel brushed her fingers over the dusty buttons and knobs and objects that she wasn’t even sure had names, she made two trips around the entire thing and made sure to memorize what she could about her new home. Along a railing near the entry was a long black wool overcoat, nearly ruined by dust, and covered in holes from age. Ethel shook it off, pulled it over herself and lay down at the base of the large console in the center of her room. She held her school books close to her and slowly drifted into sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts, comments, questions, concerns? Let me know!


End file.
